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All fanboying aside, Pagan's Mind are about the best prog band alive, and this is their much-ballyhooed follow-up to 2002's "Celestial Entrance". It must be said right up front that this is a very impressive effort for what is only the band's third CD, and while I don't worship this band like some do, even I have to admit this is a damned good album.

Pagan's Mind take the basic Dream Theater approach of prog and do it up with more of everything except wank. This is a heavier album than "Celestial Entrance", and the songwriting is a bit tighter, with more memorable licks and melodies than that album managed. This is still a cornucopia of prog excess, with songs that pretty much all hover around the 6-8 minute mark, but thankfully no real marathons that go on for 20 minutes or some shit. For my taste the songwriting is still much too ornate, but that's me, I'm not a really big fan of prog anymore. If you are, then this aspect of Pagan's Mind's songwriting will not bother you.

Performance-wise, there is nothing wrong with this at all, as this is a prog band, and no prog band is going to let an album out of the barn unless every note is perfect, such is the case here, with every single performance polished to a sheen that is undeniably impressive. Nils Rue is a great singer, but I do wish they would ease up on the vocal effects, as for most of the album his voice is so layered with technology he sounds like a machine himself. I wish they would just lay off and let him sing already.

This is an enormously strong album, and an improvement over their last in every way. Prog fan or not, you cannot argue with a song like "Enigmatic Mission" or a riff-fest like "Celestial Calling". Pagan's Mind keep the metal front and center, and manage not to get carried away with the prog, in the end producing a very cool album that should not be overlooked by Prog/Power Metal fans.